Magic & Mana
by HatfulofBomb
Summary: A look at the current, Gatewatch-centric MtG story through the lens of Dungeons and Dragons.
1. Chapter 1

_Mel_

...

Two tables, set in a 'T' formation, several books, a dragonscale bag of dice, a Dungeon Master's screen, and a notepad: the building blocks of an RPG. My four players were seated at the table perpendicular to mine Most of them had at one time been a battle-worn warrior or studied sorcerer, so I was notably worried at the prospect of DMing for them.

"Okay guys," I began, "Adventurers, welcome to Zendikar! How about you introduce yourselves to your compatriots? Gideon, you can go first."

Gary nodded, pushing up his glasses. He was by far the youngest player in the game. He was tall and skinny. It was difficult to tell between the black of his t-shirt and his neck.

"H-hi guys. I'm playing Gideon. He's -"

"I'm…" I gently chided. He was also the least experienced with tabletop games.

"I'm," he corrected, "a Human Paladin from Theros. It's sort of a Greek-inspired world, with a pantheon and an underworld. A former thief, I changed my ways after a stint in prison. Afterward, I was recruited by the Sun God, Heliod. He asked me to destroy a champion of the God of Death. I did, and in my arrogance, I went after the God of Death by myself. He tried to strike me down, but I used my magic to protect myself. As a result, my friends and compatriots around me died as Erebos's strike ricocheted off of my shield. My agony triggered my… sorry, Mel - what did you call the thing that lets Planeswalkers teleport?"

"Your spark ignited," I said.

"Right." He took a deep breath, and continued, "I ended up on another Plane, where I was taken in as a soldier and trained. Now I fight under the auspices of good and justice for everyone, everywhere." Gary wiped a hand across his forehead, finished with his story.

"Impressive backstory, Gary," Natalie said from across the table. "Mine is way less detailed."

"Okay, Natalie. Why don't you go next then?" I asked.

Natalie was one of my closest friends for about as long as I could remember. She was a mother of two, I was incredibly grateful she had still been willing to take the time to play in our games, even after she had gotten married and had kids. It certainly wasn't easy for her, she was the busiest person I knew.

"Fine. But it's not as good as Gary - Gideon's. I'm playing Nissa Revane, an Elf Druid. She's actually from Zendikar, so I have a good reason to be there when we start. I have a deep connection to magical energy, and the land, and plants. I don't like people, and I'm usually quiet."

Jenna and I nodded in approval. It was a trope, to be sure, but one that often worked well. Nissa would be a good character.

"I'll go next," said Charlie in a falsetto. She was seated next to Natalie, across from Jenna." I'm playing Chandra, the hot-headed Human Sorcerer from Kaladesh. Whenever I see a problem, I know I can get through it - with fire! If there's a bad guy, I light 'em on up. If there's something blocking my way, I burn it." She snorted as she said the next line. "Basically, I'm hot as all hell."

The pun got a giggle from the other players, as surely as it earned a frown from me.

"Okay, I guess that leaves me," said Jenna. "I'm Jace, the Human Wizard. I specialize in the Illusion school, so I'm basically a mental wizard. I have some history working around the planes for the evil dragon Planeswalker, Nicol Bolas. Oh, and I have amnesia - I don't remember my childhood or training. One day I just woke up, fully trained as a wizard, and untrained as a Planeswalker."

I was a little bit worried about Jenna's character. Amnesia was a difficult thing to fit into a story, but Jenna had given me full rights to her - Jace's childhood. I was pretty certain that I could come up with something compelling, as long as she would go along with it.

"Awesome," I started. "So let's begin. You are all on the world of Zendikar, which until recently used to be a world of adventure, travel, and discovery. That all changed with the arrival of the Eldrazi; Monstrous, unknowable entities from the Blind Eternities. They, along with their brood, had been trapped inside the plane for aeons, and were recently released when you, Nissa, noticed the issue with the land's energy.

"The Eldrazi and their spawn began ravaging the plane, murdering its inhabitants and destroying the beautiful landscape. Most of the population is dead. What do you do?" I took a sip of water, and turned the page of my notes.

"I put on my robe and wizard hat," Jenna whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. I pretended to have not heard her. She had a shit-eating grin on her face, and was looking directly at me.

"I'm going to hang around with Jace for now," said the Paladin. "He can probably figure out what to do better than I can - I didn't put any points into intelligence."

"Well, for starters, do we know where the others are?" asked Jace. "Or have we not met yet?"

"You and Gideon know each other, as do Chandra and Nissa. But the two groups haven't met yet." I answered. Gideon and Jace, you've arrived in a damp, hot forest right near Sea Gate. Chandra and Nissa, you're in the Vastwood Forest.

"Then we should meet up!" piped Charlie. "And then we can start fighting!" The rest of the players nodded. They had a goal.

…

 _Gideon_

…

The first thing I noticed was heat. The thick canopy covers did nothing to prevent the scorch of the midday sun. I wiped away the sweaty strands of hair that were falling in my eyes - if I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, I could be attacked by any number of things, not the least of which were the Eldrazi spawn.

"Gideon, what did you say we were looking for again?" asked Jace, voice quiet. I looked over - his hood was up. I wondered how he was wearing it in this heat.

"There should be people here. Vorik led a group out during the first attack," I answered.

"I'm not sensing anyone near here. Just … _them_."

I grunted. While I couldn't sense their presence in quite the same way that Jace did, I could feel the sheer _wrongness_ of the Eldrazi spawn. It was the scent of spoiled milk, the clinking sound of broken promises. It was unnatural, uncomfortable, and unknowable.

And they were destroying Zendikar, piece by piece.

"Keep searching," I said, voice terse. "They have to be around here somewhere." We walked for several more minutes in silence, punctuated by the noises of wildlife who had made their refuge in the rainforest. Occasionally we would pass a hedron half-buried in the ground- odd, geometric stone sculptures, shaped like two pyramids attached on a side. Jace told me that they were filled with energy - I couldn't tell.

Before I managed to see anything, I smelled the bodies. I pushed my way through a thick-branched bramble and saw the remnants of what was once a survivors camp.

"I found them."


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2:_

 _..._

 _Nissa_

…

Oran Rief the Vastwood was my home, and I was no longer welcome. I had been rash. I had been reckless. It seemed that I was taking cues from my new - _human-_ companion, Chandra. She was brash. Reckless. She would burn the entire forest down if it suited her.

The Eldrazi hadn't yet influenced this area. The trees - massive, straight, seeming to go upward for miles - still ruled Oran Rief. I reached out with my senses, feeling the leylines bringing mana - life energy - through the forest. It was far weaker than it had been before the Eldrazi scourge. Zendikar was dying.

Zendikar was dying, and it was my fault. When I had come back after discovering my spark, I was too arrogant. I believed that I could use my power as a planeswalker to stop The Roil from killing my home. It had been a scourge for thousands of years, as long as the eldest of her tribe, the Joraga, could remember. Rumbling waves of land, appearing and disappearing at will, The Roil killed adventurers and homebodies alike.

After much searching, I found the source. The Roil was a symptom - Zendikar was under attack by poisonous forces held within it. The Eldrazi Titans, trapped in a sort of stasis, the living mana of Zendikar being used to cage them. I had thought that they would leave once I set them free, leave my home and my people. I set them free, and ended The Roil - only to realize that the Eldrazi were an even larger threat.

I had not told my new companion yet. I didn't want her mistrusting me - she seemed to be quite bad at thinking out decisions before acting. She could burn me to a crisp before I finished speaking. I never could tell what a human would do before they did it.

"-Nissa?" I heard Chandra speak, and started, turning toward her. She had been talking. I had not been listening.

"I'm sorry, Chandra, can you repeat your question?" I asked. She huffed, wisps of smoke curling up from her nostrils. Her hair fluttered upward, though it didn't ignite like it tended to do when she was really angry.

"I asked whether this pollen was affecting you as much as it was affecting me," she said. It was true - her eyes were redder than regular, and rheumy. As I looked, she sniffed, and looked away.

"No, I live here," I answered.

"Huh."

We continued walking as I sent tendrils of my self into the leylines underground, searching for the slight increase that signalled where the Joraga were tapping into the living mana, drawing it in from Zendikar. I shied away from the areas that the Eldrazi had ravaged. I didn't want to feel those.

…

Charlie sighed. "Ugh… Mel, does a four work?"

"Nope, sorry. You failed the stealth roll"

"...I guess I sneeze?"

…

Sensing nothing, I looked back toward Chandra just in time to see her sneeze, sparks flying from her nostrils much like flame spouting from a dragon. It was endearing - animals, even dragons, have a way about them that I could understand. Humans, much less so.

"I can't find anyone, do you think we should just continue searching?" I asked. She nodded.

"May as well. I've got nothing better to do." She responded. Several more minutes passed slowly, with me treading through the brush carefully and Chandra stomping over the roots that were "getting in her way."

…

"Alright, is everyone okay if we take a break here? I've gotta take a leak," spouted Charlie.

Mel nodded. "Good plan. I'll order us some pizza and we'll meet back in fifteen minutes."

…

 _Jenna_

…

The chair I was sitting in was finally getting to a comfortable temperature. Mel keeps his apartment at what feels like sub-zero temperatures, and the faux-leather of the seat I'd nabbed always took a long-ass time to reach equivalence with my body. Charlie had left to pee, and Mel was on the phone ordering up some grub, which left me, Gary, and Natalie sitting at the table. Natalie was looking at her phone like she was expecting a call to come through, and Gary was just sitting still, looking down at his character sheet.

So apparently all of the talking would be left up to me. Fantastic.

"So, Gary, you're in college, right?" I asked. He looked up at me, and pushed his overly-large glasses up.

"Y-yeah." He said. One word answer. Fantastic.

"Do you have a major, or are you just partying through college?"

He looked down again, sending his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. He pushed them back into place. "Neither? I haven't declared yet, but I'm still a freshman, so I've got time… that's what the advisors have told me."

"Yeah, probably." I was making headway, but only barely. I made a snap decision - I needed something to do, this could be my pet project while job searching. "You should really take advantage of the opportunities that are available to you, you know. College parties are some of the dopest parties in the world."

"Dude, we're playing Dungeons and Dragons. Do we seem like the type of people who'd go to parties?" Charlie asked as she sat back down.

"I do, I don't see why other people shouldn't," I responded. "That dumb trope of all roleplayers being little weak nerdlings is _so_ passe."

"You probably shouldn't be trying to get underage people to go to parties, Jenna," chided Natalie. She had finally put her phone down. I assumed that no call was better than any call, given her kids. They were hellraisers, and I would know.

"Eh," I said with a noncommittal hand gesture.

"I probably wouldn't go anyway," said Gary. Good heavens, the child was ruddy in the cheeks just from us talking about him. "Not really my scene. Excuse me." He got up and headed in the direction of the bathroom. As he left, Mel came in.

"Alrighty then guys, pizza will be here in five minutes or so," he said.

"Add it to my tab," I responded. He chuckled softly - I had been staying in his apartment for a few weeks as I job hunted, and he was helping me with groceries and food as well. I would pay him back as soon as I was able, and he knew that, so he didn't

pressure me much.

After several more minutes of casual chit-chat, the pizza arrived, and we all started to eat.


End file.
